


This Must Be Love

by teenageinvincibility



Category: Swimming RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 07:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2183742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenageinvincibility/pseuds/teenageinvincibility
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three unrelated times Michael figured out what love is... with a little help from Ryan</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Must Be Love

They’ve been driving in what Michael’s sure is the wrong direction for about an hour. The GPS in their rental car is broken and both of their phones died almost as soon as they got on the road because they’d been too _pre-occupied_ to remember to charge them the night before.

So Michael was driving exactly the speed limit while cars honked all around him and Ryan wrestled with a map in the passenger seat to try to figure out where they are. Michael was trying his hardest to keep his patience. He’d literally bit his tongue multiple times to keep himself from lashing out at Ryan.

They’d wanted a weekend away from everything, so Ryan found a house in the mountains. They’d flown up and rented a car so they could go to the different lakes and restaurants in the area.

It had been Ryan’s idea to leave their cabin. Michael had wanted to stay in bed all day, maybe watch some movies, maybe kiss Ryan a lot. But Ryan said the room was starting to small, which was true since they hadn’t left the three previous days, and that he needed some fresh air.

“Maybe we should ask for directions,” Ryan said carefully, watching as Michael drove past another gas station.

“No,” Michael grunted.

“MP,” Ryan tried again, “I don’t know how to read this thing and we’re definitely lost.”

They drove for a few more minutes in silence until the shoulder was wide enough for Michael to pull off the road. He took the map from Ryan and tried to spread it out, but his hand kept bumping the horn and the steering wheel wouldn’t allow the map to lay flat.

Grumbling, he threw the door open and got into the backseat. He searched the tiny writing for any road he recognized, but the print was so small and there were so many words, Michael felt himself going cross-eyed.

He looked over when he felt the weight of the car shift and saw Ryan stepping over the center console and plopping down next to him. “Any luck?”

“No,” Michael sighed, defeated, and dropped his head onto Ryan’s shoulder. “We’re very much lost.”

Ryan squeezed Michael’s shoulder and looked out the window at the very empty road. No cars meant no one to ask for directions, but it also meant…

“Hey,” Ryan said, picking Michael’s chin up. “Let’s abort this mission and compromise. What d’ya say?”

Michael’s eyebrows raised. “What?”

“Well,” the corner of Ryan’s mouth pulled up as he slipped his hand under the front of Michael’s shirt. “I wanted to get out, which we did. And you wanted to to get in me, which you haven’t since last night.”

Catching up, Michael moaned, pulling Ryan’s face to his. He pushed his tongue into Ryan’s mouth as Ryan’s thumbs ran circles around Michael’s nipples.

 

“That was hot,” Ryan said. Both of their shirts were still on the floor, and Ryan was sitting up with Michael’s head on his chest. He ran his fingers absently through Michael’s hair as Michael traced invisible lines across Ryan’s stomach.

“Yeah,” Michael agreed. While it was hard to focus on anything else when Ryan’s naked body was in front of him, he didn’t have that distraction anymore and was now free to focus on what Ryan had been distracting him from. “How do we get back?”

 

*      *      *

 

Michael hates awards shows. He thinks they’re tacky, obnoxiously long, and extremely boring. He doesn’t need to receive a metal trophy for what he accomplished at the Olympics; he already got eight gold medals out of it. He doesn’t want to have even more attention drawn on him during the off season because he gets more than his fair share of media attention at meets. He hates sitting through people stutter through corny jokes they’re reading off a teleprompter.

But Ryan likes them, so they go. Ryan likes to get dressed up in his designer tuxedos and wear his ridiculously expensive cuff links and try to convince Michael to wear one of his extra pairs of Louboutins.

Michael has to admit that seeing Ryan in a tuxedo never gets old - especially toward the end of the night when Ryan takes off his jacket and rolls up his sleeves and unbuttons the top two buttons of his dress shirt.

Also, awards shows always have an unlimited free supply of the best champagne, so Michael gets himself drunk enough that he doesn’t care where he is as long as there’s more champagne - and there’s always more champagne.

 

Ryan looked so good in his tux that it had been hard for Michael to keep his hands off him when he was sober - but now Michael was six or nine glasses of champagne in. His arm was around Ryan’s shoulders, Ryan’s arm tight around his waist, as Ryan looked for their limo. Ryan was holding up most of Michael’s weight and trying to steer him in the right direction and keep him out of New York City’s traffic and Michael was groping and hitting on him.

“Hey, good lookin’,” Michael said, slurring his words together slightly. “You busy tonight?”

“Yeah,” Ryan rolled his eyes, finally spotting their limo and heading in that direction. “Got a hot date with my boyfriend. Unless he pukes or passes out.”

“He won’t,” Michael reassured him. “He feels on top of the world.”

“I’m sure you do, rockstar.”

Michael squeezed the arm Ryan had wrapped around his waist. “Fuck, you’re strong. Your arms are so big. How much do you lift?”

Ryan bit back a smile and kissed Michael on the cheek. “More than you weigh. C’mon, let’s get back to our room.”

Ryan started walking, but Michael stayed a few paces behind. “You have a really nice ass,” he stated, stumbling as he caught up to Ryan.

“You’re so drunk,” Ryan grinned, kissing Michael quickly before pushing him into the limo.

 

*      *      *

 

Michael sat on the couch with his legs propped up on the coffee table, a pillow in his lap, and Ryan’s head on the pillow. Michael ran his fingers through Ryan’s hair with his right hand, the fingers on his left hand intertwined with Ryan’s.

These were Michael’s favorite nights, probably because they were so few and far between. Nights where he and Ryan would just stay in and stay up talking all night. Because they never ran out of things to talk about.

“Yeah,” Ryan sighed, finishing his very detailed story about hooking up with 4 out of the 6 senior cheerleaders his junior year. “High school was awesome.”

Even after all of these years, it still amazed Michael how different he and Ryan were. Where Ryan was outgoing and popular, Michael was shy and kept to his inner circle of friends. They were day and night, yin and yang, wet and dry. But they worked for each other.

“I didn’t do that kind of stuff in high school,” Michael shrugged.

“What was your wildest date?” Ryan prompted.

Michael shrugged again. “I didn’t go on any.”

 

Michael awoke from his afternoon nap to find his bed shaking. He opened his eyes and found the reason: Ryan was standing over Michael, one foot on either side of Michael’s body, and jumping up and down.

“Stop,” Michael mumbled. “I’m sleeping.”

“You stop,” Ryan said, sitting down on Michael’s hips. “Get up.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re going on a date.”

 

Ryan picked the seats all the way in the back of the movie theater and sat down.

“Why’d you pick these?” Michael asked.

“ _Because_ , Michael,” Ryan rolled his eyes, “we aren’t exactly going to be watching the movie.”

The way Michael’s heart raced made him feel like he actually was back in high school. Ryan placed the bag of popcorn right on top of Michael’s crotch. He reached in, moved his hand around a little bit as if he was trying to reach the popcorn on the very bottom of the bag, and then shoved the handful into his mouth.

That’s when Michael knew Ryan was making up for what he thought Michael had missed in high school. And Michael decided he could never love anyone as much as he loved Ryan.

The lights went down and the opening credits started. Ryan stifled a yawn, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, and then stretched, slipping his arm around Michael’s shoulders. And Michael could only imagine how that must’ve worked on girls in high school because here he was, a grown man who had been in this relationship for years, and he still felt his heart flutter.

Ten minutes into the movie, Ryan started kissing up Michael’s neck. Michael had to bite back a groan, reminding himself that there were other people in the room. Ryan sucked at a spot on Michael’s neck and then attached his lips to Michael’s.

The bag of popcorn in Michael’s lap dropped to the floor as Michael shifted to get easier access to Ryan. He fisted his hand in Ryan’s shirt, pulling Ryan as close as possible. The armrest was digging into both of their sides, but neither noticed. Michael pushed his tongue into Ryan’s mouth as Ryan placed his hands on either side of Michael’s neck.

 

Ryan heard people shifting around and pulled away from Michael just in time for the lights to come back on. Both boys sat there, faces flushed, hands in their laps to hide their excitement, and breathing heavily. Their unknowing fellow-filmgoers filed past them as they left the theater, but Ryan and Michael stayed in their seats.

Once everyone had left and the attendant came in to clean the floors, Ryan and Michael walked back out to the car hand-in-hand. Michael pressed Ryan up against the side of the Range Rover, kissing him softly, grinding their hips together. Ryan moaned into Michael’s mouth.

“Shit,” he said, pulling away from Michael to rest his forehead against Ryan’s.

“What?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know what the movie was about. My mom’s gonna know.”

Michael laughed against Ryan’s lips, kissing him hard. He didn’t have much experience in the relationship department, but he knew this must be love.

 

 


End file.
